Kaltura Raises $47 Million on the Heels of Massive Growth

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Hundreds of millions of users have already enjoyed Kaltura-powered video experiences at home, at school and at work.

Kaltura Open Source Video Platform

We will continue to grow our operations in all four regions this year, as well as further accelerate our product development, said Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura Chairman and CEO

New York, NY (PRWEB)February 11, 2014

Kaltura, the leading open source video platform, has secured an additional $47 million of funding. The financing round was led by new investors SAP Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Commonfund Capital, and Brazil-based Gera Ventures with participation from existing investors .406 Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc., and Silicon Valley Bank. Kaltura will use the additional capital to further accelerate product development, and extend operations into Brazil, Mexico, China, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and Korea.

The funding comes on the heels of yet another phenomenal year, which further cemented Kaltura as a market leader, as reaffirmed by leading analysts such as Gartner and Forrester, and as recognized by leading publications. Kaltura was recently named ‘One of 10 Wildly Successful Startups’ by Inc. Magazine, ‘One of 5 Companies That Made Media Consumption Smarter This Year’ by Forbes, and ‘One of 5 Companies That Transformed Enterprise Communication in 2013’ and ‘One of Top 5 Startups Revolutionizing Education’ by Business Insider.

“The rapid adoption of our technology around the globe is a testament to the central role that video plays in every facet of our connected lives. We are proud to enable and streamline the creation of hundreds of video-enabled applications and workflows, and to assist hundreds of millions of people to improve the way they work, learn, collaborate, and entertain using video,” said Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura Chairman and CEO.

“Following our success in North America and Europe, we started addressing Asia Pacific and Latin America and were met by explosive demand,” added Yekutiel. “We will continue to grow our operations in all four regions this year, as well as further accelerate our product development. Upcoming releases include advanced live, OTT, analytics, and monetization solutions for media companies and service providers; webcasting capabilities for enterprises; and lecture capture capabilities for educational institutions.”

Kaltura continues to introduce innovative video solutions at a staggering pace, with the aid of the more than 50,000 community members at http://www.kaltura.org. Media companies are empowered by Kaltura to boost their audience reach, user engagement, and revenue with a cutting edge monetization suite, the market’s fastest loading video player, and powerful distribution tools. Kaltura is also disrupting the market with its turnkey OTT solution – Kaltura MediaGo™ - which allows content-owners to easily launch their own ‘Netflix-like’ video portal.

On the Education front, Kaltura is redefining the education experience, powering all of the latest video-based trends, including Flipped Classrooms, MOOCs, SPOCs, and Social Learning. Kaltura’s CampusTube™ social video portal, and deep integration with all Learning Management Systems – including, Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, Sakai, and the upcoming release of Kaltura’s Canvas App - enable the most engaging and effective educational video experiences across the campus and beyond.

“SAP Ventures is excited to be joining forces with Kaltura. Video is the way that most people prefer to consume information, which means video infrastructure is an essential element not only for media businesses, but also educational institutions and enterprises,” said David Hartwig, Managing Director at SAP Ventures. “We believe that Kaltura offers the most innovative solution, and a capable team which has executed flawlessly during the last few years. It’s a great synergy because SAP Ventures is uniquely capable of helping Kaltura reach these three customer bases globally, with our recent addition of Market Development function to our firm.”

Yekutiel commented: “We chose SAP Ventures because of their unparalleled dedication to the business development of their portfolio companies, a commitment shown by hiring a team to focus specifically on this. As a VC firm focused on enterprise software opportunities, SAP Ventures' proven team and focus on customer acquisition cannot be beat.”

“Video will soon constitute two thirds of all mobile data, and as such is an area of great interest for us as a leader in enabling mobility,” said Upal Basu, Partner at Nokia Growth Partners (NGP). “Kaltura’s business progress and market-leading HTML5 based video technology made it a natural choice for NGP. We look forward to collaborating closely with the company and assisting with global expansion.”

“Kaltura has shown great traction in Latin America already, and we expect that to grow significantly now with this new backing and expansion in the region,” said Leila Orenstein, Partner at Gera Ventures. “We are especially excited about Kaltura’s business in the education sector, which is our own focus as well, but look forward to helping generate new business in all three target verticals through our broad network of connections.”

About Kaltura
Kaltura’s mission is to power any video experience. Provider of the world’s first Open Source Online Video Platform, Kaltura simplifies the creation of video experiences, and provides tools that facilitate innovative and engaging experiences that create value. The Kaltura platform engages hundreds of millions of viewers by providing media companies with advanced video management, publishing, and monetization tools that increase their reach and monetization and simplify their video operations. Kaltura improves productivity and interaction among millions of employees by providing enterprises with powerful online video tools for boosting internal knowledge sharing, training, and collaboration, and for more effective marketing. Kaltura offers next generation learning for millions of students and teachers by providing educational institutions with disruptive online video solutions for improved teaching, learning, and increased engagement across campuses and beyond. For more information: http://www.kaltura.com, to join Kaltura’s community visit: http://www.kaltura.org and http://www.html5video.org.

About SAP Ventures
SAP Ventures, with more than US$1.4 billion under management, is an investment firm that seeks to partner with outstanding entrepreneurs and leading venture firms worldwide to build industry-leading businesses. SAP Ventures is an independent investment organization affiliated with SAP AG, the leading global enterprise software company. SAP Ventures leverages its relationship with SAP and its ecosystem for the benefit of its portfolio companies and underlying fund managers. SAP Ventures was founded in 1997 and has invested in more than 125 companies across five continents. For more information, please visit http://www.sapventures.com/.

About Nokia Growth Partners (NGP)
Nokia Growth Partners invests in companies that are changing the face of mobility, communications and the internet. NGP offers industry expertise, capital and an extensive network, enabling entrepreneurs to build disruptive, industry-changing companies and take them to the global market. With offices in the US, Europe, India and China, NGP extends the reach of companies making their products and services local everywhere. Visit http://www.nokiagrowthpartners.com for more information.

About Commonfund Capital
Since its founding in 1988, Commonfund Capital has served as an extension of its clients' investment committees and staffs and its mission has remained the same: to provide the best total solution for global private equity, venture capital and natural resources investing. Through high quality funds and separate/managed accounts, Commonfund Capital offers investors flexible solutions to construct and customize their private capital portfolios. They build investment programs by partnering with many of the world's leading private capital firms and invest in primary funds as well as secondaries and co-investments. For additional information about Commonfund Capital, please contact cciinfo(at)cfund(dot)org. Commonfund Capital, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Commonfund.

About Gera Ventures
Gera is an investment company focused on education in Brazil. We invest in high-potential entrepreneurs with the dual objective of creating substantial impact on education while delivering attractive financial results.